Contents

Appearance

Hikaru usually wears her school uniform, which consists of a red long sleeve blouse, a collar and a white ribbon with a black skirt with a line of red at the bottom and white petticoat. After she is summoned to Cephiro, she wears white armor with rubies adorned in it. After her armor reaches the last stage, she wears a very short red, white, and gold armor-like dress with a red cape and matching tiara-like headpiece. Hikaru is very short, with light red braided hair and fiery red eyes.

Personality

Hikaru Shidou

A pure, honest and a simple girl. Although she is vertically challenged, she can jump very well. She is good at using swords because of her training with Kendo when she was still young. Hikaru is very short that's why she is often mistaken as an elementary student instead of being a junior high school girl she really is. In spite of her simplicity and innocence, she is the bravest, strongest, and most mature among the other magic knights. Her first weapon was a sword and soon upgrades to a sword made from Escudo that turns to flames if someone other than herself touches it.

Hikaru Shidou is also the youngest daughter of her family, who runs a kendo dojo. She has three older adoring brothers; Satoru, Masaru, and Kakeru, thus explaining her tomboyish personality. Neither the manga or anime version mentions any reference to her parents beyond that they exist. However, one of the manga omakes mentions that her father left on a training journey when she was five because she had beaten him in a kendo match.

Hikaru possesses the strongest heart of the Magic Knights summoned by princess Emeraude to save Cephiro. She is often the one encouraging the other Magic Knights to look at the bright sides. Her best friends and fellow Knights are Umi Ryuuzaki and Fuu Hououji. She is headstrong, determined, and somewhat childish, regularly doted upon by other characters both in the manga and the anime version. Hikaru is very enthusiastic, thus she is the first one to accept her duties as a Magic Knight. She is more emotional in the anime, she blames herself for the death of Princess Emeraude and the guilt starts to eat at her conscience. Hikaru is very innocent and loves everyone equally. This is proven when Lantis asked her about love confessions on Earth in the manga and she said she wanted to marry both him and Eagle; Vision of Autozam. Her relationships with them differ in the anime.

Hikaru has a somewhat uncanny ability to understand animal language, and Cephiro's fauna. She has a strong friendship with Mokona, and Clef's pet Fyula.

The character Nova is a part of Hikaru's soul and becomes a crucial part of the second half of the story in the anime. Nova appears to be her reflection and somehow, they happen to look exactly the same except for Nova's long elven-like ears and pinkish, unbraided hair.

History

Plot

Manga Plot

Hikaru is first seen during her school field trip in Tokyo Tower. While her friends were rather annoyed when the school picked Tokyo Tower for the site of school trip, Hikaru ignored this fact and enjoyed watching through the telescope. When she ran out of time and was looking for another token, a girl from another school, Fuu Hououji, offered her some tokens as she found Hikaru's enthusiasm delightful. As Hikaru was about to thank her, she became lost in a crowd of girls from another school, which includes Umi Ryuuzaki. Suddenly, the voice of Princess Emeraude calls out to her to rescue the world Cephiro, calling her a "Magic Knight." Soon she was transported to Cephiro by a giant flying fish along with Fuu and another girl, Umi Ryuuzaki.

After introductions and admonishment that Hikaru is not in elementary school as Fuu had initially thought, the girls met Guru Clef who explains the plight of Cephiro: Sol Zagato has "captured" Princess Emeraude, the Pillar of Cephiro that upholds peace within the world by the power of her will. Unaware of the real situation, Hikaru immediately volunteers herself to become a Magic Knight and wants to save Cephiro. With that, Clef gives Hikaru the blessing of fire magic. The three Magic Knights then go through a series of events allowing them to learn spells, obtain weapons, and revive the Mashin of Cephiro. Hikaru's tests involve facing an illusion of her dog Hikari (her best friend) for her part of Escudo, and fighting a brainwashed Lafarga who had capture Umi and Fuu for her Mashin Rayearth to recognize her.

Along her journey the three girls gradually become best friends. Eventually they reach Zagato and kill him. Unfortunately, Emeraude becomes enraged as in actuality she is in love with Zagato and her love for him had interfered with her ability to think only of Cephiro. She attacks the Magic Knights as her sorrow has consumed her. After learning Emeraude's true purpose of summoning the Knights, to kill her as no one in Cephiro may harm her and she is unable to take her own life, and after coaxing from Emeraude's spirit still wishing to save Cephiro, Hikaru finally obliges. She, along with Umi and Fuu, delivers the last, fatal blow to Emeraude. Although Emeraude was thankful to be reunited with Zagato, the Magic Knights returned to Earth horrified by the reality of Emeraude's situation and their actions.

In the second part of the manga series, Hikaru was traumatized from the final battle with Emeraude, becoming silent and reserved, worrying her brothers by her out of character behavior. She often visits Tokyo Tower to reunite with Umi and Fuu as noted by Fuu's sister, Kuu. On the one occasion depicted in the manga, she confesses her wish to revisit Cephiro. Instantly, she and the girls are taken back to Cephiro, now barren and crumbling from the lack of a Pillar. Hikaru is told that Cephiro is also being invaded by three neighboring countries, Autozam, Chizeta, and Fahren. Hikaru and her friends decide to help repel the invaders while a replacement for the Pillar is found.

During this time, Hikaru meets Lantis, the younger brother of Zagato. Feeling guilty for killing his brother, she apologizes, but Lantis tells her not to worry as the Pillar System is to blame. As the series progresses, Hikaru also believes that the Pillar System is wrong due to the events that transpired with Emeraude. Eventually it is revealed by Mokona, the creator of Cephiro, Earth, and the neighboring planets, that the person most suited for the position of Pillar is either Hikaru or Eagle Vision of Autozam, and the two are forced to face off against each other. Hikaru "won" the battle by showing the most strength of heart as she refuses to fight Eagle, stating that no one should needlessly die as it hurts others, and eventually brings him back to Cephiro with the help of Umi and Fuu. It is also insinuated by Umi that Mokona's love for Hikaru allowed her and Fuu to help rescue Hikaru and Eagle, and that it was he who had summoned the girls back to Cephiro.

As the new Pillar, Hikaru chooses to remove the Pillar System allowing all of Cephiro to cultivate its own happiness. At the end of the manga, Hikaru and the girls are granted access to Cephiro whenever they like, and Hikaru asks the reader to pick a new name for Cephiro on the last page.

Anime Plot

In the anime, the same events happened as it did in the manga with few additions, but the biggest change was Hikaru's test to reviving her Rune-God. In the anime, Zagato had stripped Hikaru from her armor and sword, and fought her while holding Umi and Fuu hostages. Lafarga later returned to oppose Zagato, but Hikaru ended up protecting him as well. After enduring the attacks long enough, Rayearth acknowledged the power of her heart and granted her his power. With that, the armors and swords of the Magic Knights evolved to the final stage and they were ready to face Zagato.

Season two greatly differs from the manga. After returning to Cephiro, Hikaru dreams about a mysterious being (Lady Debonair) claiming that she would take over and destroy everything, adding to Hikaru's stress of killing Emeraude. Hikaru is eventually captured by Autozam, though she was freed after forming a strong bond with its leader Eagle Vision. She also loses her sword to Nova, though Sierra disguised as Presea and helps her revive it. She eventually learns that either she or Eagle Vision will become the next Pillar. Hikaru, however, decides to continue to defend the castle of Cephiro, capturing Eagle, but later learns that Lantis was defeated and captured by Nova, and begins to realize her feelings for him. Hikaru confines in Eagle who decides to help her rescue Lantis.

Close to the final battle, Clef tells Hikaru the truth about Nova and Nova's foster mother Debonair, that Nova was created by the sadness of her heart upon killing Emeraude (just like what happened to Princess Emeraude which was because of her sadness and grief when Zagato died) and Debonair from the sorrows of the people of Cephiro. While facing Nova and Debonair, Eagle interferes and is killed, and Debonair retreats, leaving Nova behind. It is then that Hikaru confronts Nova, accepting her back into her heart. After learning from Alcyone of Debonair's hiding place on the underside of Cephiro, she, Umi, and Fuu leave in their Rune-Gods to fight her again. With the help of Cephiro's citizens and the neighboring countries' well wishes, they prevail. Like the manga, Hikaru becomes the new Pillar and wishes to abolish the system.

Unlike the manga, the Eagle-Hikaru-Lantis triangle did not really develop. Hikaru did love Eagle (hinted that it was most likely platonic), but not as strongly as she did for Lantis, and both professed their love for one another by the end of the season. It was also revealed that it was she who brought herself, Umi, and Fuu to Cephiro all along. At the end of the last episode, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are seen standing, looking out from the top of the Tokyo Tower, and Hikaru vows that they will return to Cephiro once again.

OVA Plot

Hikaru in OVA

In the OVA, Hikaru is already friends with Umi and Fuu and they go to the same school. The story begins with Hikaru reminiscing on the past as she stands near the cherry tree. She remembers that she made a wish with Umi and Fuu to be friends forever since they believed that if a cherry blossom fairy heard them, it would grant them their wish. Just as she thought it was silly, Mokona, which she believes to be the fairy, jumps out and Hikaru proceeds to follow.

Later, Hikaru meets Clef receives her fire powers and Rayearth, whose name was changed to Lexus (the combined Rune-Gods being named Rayearth). She then learns of her enemy, Eagle, who is trying to destroy Earth for his sister, Princess Emeraude's, sake. She and the girls fight with Eagle's minions, with some help from Lantis, in order to prevent Earth's destruction. Towards the end she fights with Zagato's dead Rune-God as Zagato had died before the events of the OVA, which Eagle had summoned to fight the Magic Knights. After defeating it, Eagle is about to summon another monster when his sister awakes from the dream he had placed her in. She tells Eagle that this isn't what she wanted, causing him to disappear.

Equipment and Abilities

"Flame Arrow" (Honoo no Yaa): This is Hikaru's most used magic spell. Although the name suggests that it takes the form of an arrow, it's mostly depicted as an overall flame which attacks the enemy.

"Crimson Lightning/Ruby Lightning" (Akai Inazuma): This is Hikaru's second spell, and arguably her most powerful. However, it is her least used spell. With this spell, Hikaru gathers lightning energy that takes the form of ruby coloured balls. Each ball of magic is able to do considerable amounts of damage. Hikaru is seen using this spell only once in the second season.